Ruth Ammann

The Enchantment of Gardens

A Psychological Approach

English translation by Mark Kyburz and John Peck

168 pages, ISBN 3-85630-724-9 / 978-3-85630-724-0, Daimon

A garden is a very special place with many faces, and it can lead us to previously unknown worlds. Anyone involved with gardens knows how they can touch our souls in countless ways. Garden and soul comprise a kind of secret ’in-between-world,’ a space between the light and the dark, culture and nature, conscious and unconscious, spirit and body – a space that has an irresistible attraction for us.

Ancient wisdom tells us that gardens have a healing, nourishing effect on the human soul and body. The garden belongs to the great archetype of life and is one of the few big archetypal images that are experienced primarily as positive. This positive experience is significant because the garden is a part of the natural and cultural human environment, and thus particularly influential in the interaction between human beings and their environment.

This delightful book invites us to see and experience in new ways the abundance and variety of gardens and their influence on our inner life.

ContentsPrefaceChapter One- The Gate: Entering into the Garden’s Realm of SecrecyChapter Two - The Meaning of Fences: What Makes a Piece of Earth into a Garden?Chapter Three - The Soul’s Half-Acre: From Outer to Inner GardenChapter Four - A Garden Stroll from Morning to Evening: Roses and Carnations, Flowers and CloudsChapter Five - Beauty, Joy, and Sensuousness: Gifts from Gardens to HumanityChapter Six- Love’s Garden: Another Secret PlaceChapter Seven- Stillness: The Experience of the Divine in GardensChapter Eight- The Everyday: Gardening as Inner Work

The Swiss author Ruth Ammann studied architecture and analytical psychology. She is a psychotherapist and sandplay therapist, and is a training analyst at the C.G. Jung Institute in Zurich. In addition to working in her own practice, she is also an active international lecturer. She lives near Zurich in a house surrounded by a large magical garden.